Roles in the chart: useful element, enabler, ailment and remedy element (and bridging element)

In Four Pillars of Destiny (BaZi), once the structure is taken from the month, each element in the chart plays one of five roles: the structural pivot, the enabler, the ailment, the remedy element, or an idle element. Where two elements oppose each other, a bridging element can link them. The word “useful element” (用神) has two senses in the books, and both are worth knowing.

The earlier lessons covered these roles one by one, along with support and restraint and climate balance. Here they come together: what each element in the chart does for the structure.

Two senses of “useful element”

In The True Interpretation of Ziping (子平真诠; Qing dynasty, 18th century), the useful element means only the element taken from the month: set the day stem against the month branch, and the structures divide. In this sense the useful element is the structural pivot; see the lesson on taking the structure from the month.

The True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element

The two senses describe two things: the first says what the chart turns on, the second what it welcomes. Both are useful; when reading the books, see which sense is meant. In this series, “useful element” on its own means the first sense. What support and restraint, or climate balance, choose is called the elements the chart welcomes; see the lesson on support or restraint and the lesson on climate balance.

Five roles

Once the structure is taken, each element in the chart falls into one of five roles by what it does for the structure:

The True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element; The True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Importance of the Enabler; The True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element: Formed, Broken and Remedied; Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element: Formed, Broken and Remedied

Two points to note. First, the pivot keeps its role even when its nature is harsh: the Seven Killings in a Seven Killings structure and the Hurting Officer in a Hurting Officer structure are both pivots; they only need to be checked or channeled, as the lesson on two kinds of handling explains. Second, the remedy element is often also an enabler: Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping says that an element which comes to the rescue when the structure is damaged is an enabler too.

The True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element; Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Importance of the Enabler

Idle elements

Dripping Heavenly Marrow (滴天髓) has a chapter on idle elements. Its verse says a chart may hold one or two idle elements; there is no harm in leaving them unused, as long as they are left alone. The original notes say that whatever lies outside the favorable and the unfavorable, not enough to count as either, is an idle element. On clear energy, the original notes also say that in a Direct Officer structure, if the other elements each keep their place, or stay idle, and do not break the structure, the structure is clear.

Dripping Heavenly Marrow · Idle Elements; Dripping Heavenly Marrow · Idle Elements, original notes; Dripping Heavenly Marrow · Clear Energy, original notes

Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated adds that an idle element, idle most of the time, can still help when it matters: when a decade phase or annual phase brings an element that would break the structure, an idle element can check it, or combine with it and transform into an element that helps.

Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated · Idle Elements

The bridging element

Sometimes two forces in a chart face each other: one controls the other, and neither gives way. Dripping Heavenly Marrow speaks of bridging:

关内有织女，关外有牛郎，此关若通也，相邀入洞户。

Our translation: Inside the pass is the Weaver Girl; outside it, the Cowherd. Once this pass is open, they invite each other in through the door.

The original notes explain that the two energies want to join and generate each other, but something stands between them, and an element is needed to link them. The linking element is the one the controlling side generates and that in turn generates the controlled side:

The original notes list the first four pairs; Water against Fire, brought into harmony by Wood, comes from Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping. The notes also say that being too far apart, having another element in between, being caught in a punishment or clash, or being seized by another element all count as barriers. The bridging element must reach both sides: revealed on the stems or hidden in the branches, either counts. If the chart lacks it, a decade phase or annual phase that brings it can bridge as well.

Dripping Heavenly Marrow · The Bridging Element, original notes; Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping · On Weighing the Useful Element Against the Climate

Bridging, and the child rescuing the mother

Against one element controlling another, Dripping Heavenly Marrow also describes the child rescuing the mother: the element the controlled side generates turns back to control the element controlling it. For example, Metal controls Wood; Wood generates Fire, and Fire controls Metal, freeing the Wood.

Both ease the conflict, but bridging is the fuller answer. Take Metal controlling Wood again. Bridging uses Water: Metal generates Water and Water generates Wood, so the control turns into generation. The child rescuing the mother uses Fire, which only holds the Metal back; the control remains, and the Wood still takes some damage. So when a chart has both, look to bridging first. Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated adds that the child rescuing the mother depends on the season: if the controlled side is out of season and has no energy of its own, it can hardly rely on the element it generates to check its attacker.

Dripping Heavenly Marrow · The Reversed Pattern; Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated · The Reversed Pattern

Try it on your chart

1. Write down the structural pivot, then find the enabler and see whether it is intact.
2. Circle the ailments that hurt the structure, and look in the four pillars for remedy elements that remove them.
3. Note the remaining elements as idle, and watch which of them could help when it matters.
4. Find any two forces in the chart where one controls the other and neither gives way. Using the table above, see whether a bridging element is present and whether it reaches both sides; if not, see whether the child can rescue the mother.
5. Separately, note the elements chosen by support and restraint and by climate balance: the useful element in the other sense.

See also: Chart structure starts from the month

See also: The enabler: the structure’s supporting element

See also: Two kinds of handling: nurture and restrain

See also: How a structure forms, breaks and recovers

See also: Support or restrain: which elements your chart welcomes

See also: Climate balance: the climate element